World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseChina had been in political turmoil since the 1911 revolution. In fact, civil wars and regional conflicts would continue nearly non-stop into the WW2 era. By 1928, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, based in the capital of Nanjing, had largely emerged as the strongest faction. In the early- to mid-1930s, Nationalist government was able to significantly improve the country's infrastructure and stabilize the economy. Since the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, sovereignty had slowly been returning to Chinese hands from the European imperial powers, and relationships with the west had also been improving. Foreign nations such as and the Soviet Union and Germany contributed much to the rise of modern China in this period. Behind the steady progress was the Nationalist Party's one-party system, which was maintained by brutal force whenever necessary. Corruption, which was a matter of course in Qing Dynasty China, was inherited by the Nationalist officials, and the party leadership did little to curb such practice.

ww2dbaseIt was around this time that the Chinese Communist Party was formed. Although later Communist literature would claim a great amount of credit in its efforts to better the lives of the ordinary people and to counter the increasing Japanese demands on China, the truth was that the Communist party was only slightly better than a group of bandits in the 1930s, surviving as the result of the Nationalist Party's agreement with the Soviet Union in return for military aid.

ww2dbaseJapan's violation of Chinese sovereignty started as early as 1931 when Japanese troops entered northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, which had a population of about 30,000,000. On 18 Feb 1932, Japan established the puppet nation of Manchukuo, forcibly taking Manchuria away from China. The League of Nations attempted to interfere with Japan's aggression toward China, but failed. With the former Emperor of China, Puyi, nominally at the helm of the puppet nation, Japan used Manchukuo for its rich resources as well as its strategic location to counter Soviet influence in the area. In 1932, Japan attacked the Chinese city of Shanghai, again triumphant over an ineffective League of Nations. The streak of aggression would continue with an invasion of Hebei Province in 1933 and an indirect support of a Mongolian raid into northern China in 1936. Full scale war would finally break out in Jul 1937. Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kaishek, previously stressed the need to unify China by defeating the Communists before dealing with external aggression, was kidnapped during the Xi'an Incident and forced to temporarily ally with the Communists. Such an alliance was nominal at best. At first, the Communists undermined Nationalist efforts against the Japanese so to allow the Japanese to inflict maximum damage on the Nationalists, while the Nationalists moved their best divisions and weapons into reserve for the inevitable future civil war against the Communists. Before long, the two sides would engage in actual fighting against each other, although such clashes would be played down on both sides to avoid damage in reputation.

ww2dbaseThe city of Shanghai on the Chinese coast fell under Japanese control in Oct 1937, followed by the capital of Nanjing two months later. Japanese troops committed atrocities, with the most brutal example shown with the Rape of Nanjing, where 50,000 to 300,000 Chinese, mostly civilians and prisoners of war, were murdered and 20,000 women of all ages were raped. Japanese bomber crews were equally brutal against the civilians, dropping their payloads purposefully in residential zones and on clearly marked hospitals. Although out-gunned and out-maneuvered by Japanese troops, the Chinese were determined and were resilient. Fighting primarily a defensive war, the Chinese made use of the vastness of China Proper to trap more and more Japanese troops in this large theater as occupation troops, preventing them from being used offensively in the China-Burma-India Theater or as garrison troops in the Pacific War. To partially counter this, the Japanese organized regiments of Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han Chinese military and gendarmerie units to police the conquered territories. The most powerful collaborationist force in China under Japanese control was the military of the puppet state Manchukuo, which fielded a 220,000-strong military with a small air force and a small navy. The general Chinese population who happened to reside near main railways was pressed into Japanese service as well. These civilians were given the responsibility to quickly repair sections of tracks damaged or destroyed by Chinese saboteurs within eight miles of their places of residence; failures in doing so quickly would often result in reprisal killings.

ww2dbaseAt the end of the war, over 2,000,000 Japanese lived in China, most of whom in Manchuria. Nearly all were deported back to Japan after the war.

ww2dbaseThe eight-year war ended with a great cost on the Chinese population with about 20,000,000 perishing in the conflict, 16,000,000 of that figure civilian. Inflation grew to dangerous levels in the post-war economy, and the situation was worsened by rampant corruption in the Nationalist government. Meanwhile, the Soviet troops that invaded the puppet nation of Manchukuo remained there, providing a safe haven for the Chinese Communists to build up strength and gathered surrendered Japanese equipment. In Mar 1946, the civil war restarted, and a year later the Communist capital of Yenan was taken by the Nationalists, which enjoyed a military advantage and had monetary support from the United States. The Communists quickly turned the tide, however. Through effective propaganda campaigns and popular land reform policies, the Communists secured loyalty from the massive farmer population, thus providing the Communists a nearly unlimited pool of resources from which they could recruit manpower. By late 1947, the Communists had taken control all of northeastern China. Chiang Kaishek suggested an offensive into the northeast, but US Secretary of State George Marshall convinced Chiang to wait, hoping the civil war could end via diplomatic means; although a Nationalist offensive might or might not had been successful, the pause meant the Nationalists had now given away any chance of seizing the initiative. In 1948, the Communists launched an offensive of their own into China Proper, rapidly pushing back Nationalists forces. On 31 Jan 1949, Beiping was declared secure by the Communists. On 21 Apr, the Chinese capital of Nanjing fell under Communist control. The Nationalist government first fled to Guangzhou on 23 Apr, then Chongqing on 15 Oct, followed by Chengdu on 25 Nov.

ww2dbaseRelocation of the Republic of China to Taiwan

ww2dbaseOn 10 Dec 1949, the Nationalists abandoned all positions in mainland China and relocated the Republic of China to the island of Taiwan on 10 Dec 1949. The Nationalists were able to secure quantities of gold reserves and various cultural treasures to Taiwan before they could be captured by the Communists. The Republic of China still remains in Taiwan today with the capital in the city of Taipei. Mainland China today is occupied by a new country formed by the Communist forces which claimed victory in 1949; the communist People's Republic of China renamed Beiping ("Northern Peace") to Beijing ("Northern Capital") to serve as its capital.

ww2dbaseAdministrative Divisions of the Republic of China

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